Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Beer Recipe of the Week

This is a nice and easy recipe if you want to try making an all grain beer. To keep your costs down, you can use a colander. I have one that has small holes and it works great for straining the grains. The hardest thing is crushing the grain. I bought a Corona crusher and it works fine, but is a real pain when doing 10 or more pounds.( I hand crank, seems more authentic.)

India Pale Ale (2gal)

Category

India Pale Ale

Recipe Type

All Grain

If you haven't tried mashing yet, you really should. You can start small and grow as equipment and funds permit. Also, by starting small, you don't have a large sum invested in equipment if you decide mashing isn't for you.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

I've talked about using a Mr. Beer fermenter when I first started out making homemade beer. Well. here is another person's view on his first attempt at beer making and it pretty much sums up the Mr. Beer brewing process.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Here is a technique that Ian from The Home Winery just discovered. I have been using this technique for a couple years with a lot of success and his write up on it says it better than I can.

January 15th, 2006 by Ian

The other day, I overfilled a 3 gallon carboy after racking from a primary. My housemate happened to walk in while I was gently dipping my wine thief into the carboy, trying carefully to not overflow the liquid. She watched me as I did this several times, each time, drawing a very small amount of wine from the carboy.

Wendy then said, Ian, wouldnt you be better off using a turkey baster?

Holy smokes I went and sanitized the turkey baster and did what I wanted to do in mere seconds. Furthermore, I realized that a turkey baster is much handier for drawing liquid from the carboy for any activity that a wine thief would be used. Just squeeze the bulb on top, put the end of the baster in, release the bulb, and wine gets sucked up much faster than using a thief. As well, it doesnt drip as much at the bottom end either, after drawing it out of the wine.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Ingredients: (for 1 gallon)

5 pounds, Honey

1 teaspoon, Citric Acid

1/4 pint, Strong Tea

1 package, Champagne Yeast

Yeast Nutrient

Procedure:

Boil 1 quart of water, honey and citric acid for seven minutes. Then the add the tea and boil for five more minutes. The mixture was then added to 48 FL. oz. of cold water in the one gallon jug. The wort was then cooled overnight to 70 degrees. Add yeast and yeast nutrient. Ferment for four months.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Spring is just about 8 weeks away and soon yards will be sprouting those little yellow flowers. A great solution to the dandelion problem is to make wine with them. This recipe was taking from "Making Wild Wines and Meads" and will make a 1 gallon batch.

6 cups dandelion petals

2 pounds sugar

1 pound light raisins

1 tablespoon acid blend

1 campden tablet

1 pack wine yeast

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1 1/2 cups orange juice

1 teaspoon pectin enzyme

Wash and prepare dandelion petals. Place them and sugar, raisins and acid blend into fermenter. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and pour it into the mixture. Add a campden tablet and let the mixture sit for 24 hours.

Add pectin enzyme and yeast and allow to ferment for 3 days. Then rack over and allow to finish fermenting. This should take about 3 months. Rack 1 more time and allow to clear. Then bottle.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Most people think that you need a lot of equipment and spend a lot of money to get into making your own beer or wine. Not true. I use a lot of stuff from my kitchen. There are a few inexpensive items you will need to purchase.

Items you need

6 gallon food grade bucket with a lid that has a hole to fit airlocks

hydrometer

stainless steel pot (12qt to 20qt)

funnel

airlocks

thermometer - floating one is great. I use an electronic because it is easier.

rolling pin - to crush grains

This basic equipment assumes that you are using juices to make wine and either liquid or dry malt to make beer. In other words, real simple techniques. As you advance in either one, you will want to pick up more equipment, but this should get you started.